Companies forcing staff back into the office full-time are “dinosaurs” who wrongly believe their staff are “snowflakes”, according to the professor who coined the term “presenteeism”.
Sir Cary Cooper, a professor at the University of Manchester, said companies giving white-collar workers no choice but to go back to their desks full-time were “dinosaurs” who don’t trust their staff.
“Why I call them dinosaurs is they don’t ask, they mandate – this is not what the next generation want. You can call them snowflakes if you want, but they are more IT savvy and know they can work flexibly,” he said.
“Millennials have young kids, it’s costly to go into town, it wastes their time. We’re screwing our productivity up. Are we out of our mind? This is a no-brainer.
“Twenty years ago we didn’t have the technology we have now. This generation of workers are hard-working, they’re not snowflakes.”
Hmm, OK. Amazon has just insisted that everyone go back to the office 5 dasys a week.
So, who do we believe? One of the most valuable – and therefore possibly at least best managed – companies on the planet or a knighted professor who’s never run anything larger than a seminar?
Toughie, innit?
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